Quote Originally Posted by Canuck of NI View Post
I spent a few years smooching with an Irish speaker, so once had a direct personal interest. From what I could find out when I was making a study of the issue, about 10 years back, Irish gaelic is officially used and therefore protected from extinction in Eire, whereas Scottish gaelic seemed to be pretty much beyond endangered and into its last gasps everywhere in Scotland. It seemed to be more used in places like Cape Breton in Canada, and there almost entirely by professional musicians and so on. So, while I am totally unable to correspond in that language, I sincerely wish you all the best.

And I'm hoping for some severe contradiction on the 'last gasp' statement.
I've heard more than once that it's still spoken in the Western Isles, though how wide spread & its frequency I could not tell you.

We have quite a little community of Scottish Gaelic speakers here in Washington state. unfortunately most seem to be well south of me (& for those east of the mountains here on the westside, for the most part), and due to transportation issues I'm unable to get together with them. I also attempted a couple of years ago to start up a local Gaidheal learning group, unfortunately that met with little success

So now I'm left to wondering about an on-line learning program (for a rank beginner)?

Any ideas?